The Ancient Olympics

“It is hard for us to exaggerate how important the Olympics were for the Greeks,” Paul Christesen, Professor of Ancient Greek History at Dartmouth College. 

 As the Winter Olympic Games of 2018 come to an end and we have to wait another 2 years for the summer ones to roll around. I thought it would be interesting to talk about the history and origins of the Olympic Games. Starting in 776 BC the ancient Olympics inspired the games we now know and love today. These games began over 2,700 years ago and were originally hosted in Olympia, located in Southwest Greece. Although the games were all about who was the strongest and most athletic, it was originally a religious festival.

 The games were initially held in honor of Zeus the king of the gods. In the middle of the festival the people actually slaughter huge numbers of cows in honor of Zeus and once he had a taste, the rest of the meat was for the people. This made this festival not only religious, but like a giant modern day barbeque. There was also a rather large alter featuring Zeus as well, which was extremely sacred, much like the alters we now have today in Christianity.

 The games, just as they are today, were staged every 4 years and lasted from 776 BC to at least 393 AD. Making the games part of the Greek calendar for almost 12 centuries. This was actually a huge accomplishment because it provided a Pan-Hellenic system of dating events by Olympiads or 4-year cycles. By the 5^th century the games lasted a full 5 days, and people all over the Greek world would come to either watch or participate. In fact, roughly 40,000 people would file into stadium and watch the spectacle.

We know the Olympics today as the 16 days the entire world comes together. It’s rather beautiful, and if you watched this year’s games North Korea and South Korea even banned together and became simply, the Korean team. To me personally, it’s the one time every 2 years that the world successfully is one and lives in harmony. This was actually to some extent true with the ancient Olympic games as well. The Greek world would create a truce every 4 years during the time of the games. The truce basically made city-states promise to not attack one another.

 Unlike the modern day Olympics not everyone was allowed to participate, by that I mean if you were a woman you could not compete or even attend. There was however, a loophole that some women took advantage of. Chariot owners, not chariot riders, were declared Olympic champions and anyone could own a chariot. One women named Kyniska who was a daughter of a Spartan King and claimed victory wreaths twice, once in 396 BC and then again in 392 BC.

When it came to men competing any and all men were allowed to compete from farmhands to royal heirs. Some Persians even made the trip to Greece and competed as well. Although everyone was allowed to compete, the majority of Olympians were soldiers of city-states. Interestingly enough there was a time when Greece was preparing to go to war in the summer of 480 BC with Persia and the entire Greek world was going to ban together and create a massive army. They actually had to put off doing this and going to war because so many soldiers wanted to participate in the Olympics, they were that big and that important.

 Instead of being award gold, silver, and bronze medals like champions are today, victors were given victory wreaths. These wreaths were made up of olive trees and winners would stand by the giant alter dedicated to Zeus. These games were a huge part of the Greek worlds culture and people travelled far and wide to watch them and try to win wreaths which were a great honor to receive.

There are a lot of difference in the games from then to now, but I found some really interesting facts that may actually surprise you.

• Events included running, jumping, boxing, wrestling, pankration (which is basically a mixture of both boxing and wrestling we saw this in the video shown in class) and chariot racing.
• All athletes competed naked, which honestly sounds horrible when it comes to boxing, wrestling and pankration.
• Wrestlers and pankration competed covered in oil
• There were only two rules when it came to pankration; no biting, and no gouging
• There were no points given, no time limits, and no weight classifications in boxing
• Corporal punishment was given to those who were guilt of a false start on the track
• Athletes in combat sports indicated their surrender by raising their index finger, unfortunately many times they would die before being able to do this
• Boxers who could not be separated could opt for climax, a system whereby one fighter was granted a free hit and then vice-versa – a toss of a coin decided who went first
• Boxers were urged to avoid attacking the on-display male genitals

 Overall, the ancient Olympic Games in the Greek world left a huge mark in history. A lot has changed, but the fundamentals haven’t, they still bring people together, bestowed honor upon victors, and make for one hell of a show. Today the Olympics aren’t nearly as aggressive and are open to anyone from anywhere, they are also no longer being associated with religion, but make people proud of there countries and the world as a whole. 

I have attached a video below discussing the differences between ancient and modern Olympics. 

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/the_olympic_games/

https://www.olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games